October 28, 2006

Fatal fall at Yosemite shocks climbing world: Skinner, a 47-year-old former rodeo cowboy and world-renowned rock climber, fell more than 500 feet to his death Monday after the nylon loop used to attach the climbing rope to his harness broke. The accident has sent shock waves through the climbing community, where Skinner's outgoing nature was almost as legendary as his courage and skill on some of the world's most dangerous rock faces.

I live in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, only a few hours from Lander. There are many "extreme" athletes here in a tiny community. They mainly consist of skiers and snowboarders, snowmobilers, and perhaps foolhardiest of all, rodeo cowboys. We also have many climbers, kayakers, and generally crazy people throwing themselves off of insane objects. If they were to perish doing any of these things, they would say, "at least I was doing what I loved". Faulty equipment aside, it's better than getting creamed by a taxi-cab.

There's nothing wrong in not getting the appeal in so-called "extreme" sports. But if you don't get it, the tactful thing to do -- particularly on the occasion of a death -- is to remain silent rather than offering cheezy pop-psychology platitudes about the mental state, desires and attitudes of participants. Skinner had a wife and three children and a reputation as a very safe climber. To project one's own needs, values and fears onto someone else's situation is always a mistake, because often you come up with a different set of decisions than they would make. And then? Judgment time. He must be crazy, or stupid, or foolhardy, or senseless, or playing with fire. And, one more time, let's try to get over the need to say, "he died doing what he loved". No one wants to die doing what they love. It's not what Skinner wanted out of that day's climb, to fall 500 feet to his death. God didn't appear to him and say, "Dude, you got two choices: take a drop, or get creamed by a taxi-cab/waste away from a disease. Which is it gonna be?" Saying that he died doing what he loved is in some ways like saying that he died while wearing a blue shirt: it's true, but so what?

He admitted himself he was guilty of using gear past its "prime" time. At least thats what is says in the local paper. His own friends said he would take used equipment and use it. How many guys have you all seen in a wheelchair because of a bull or a horse? When you have to drink your Bud-Light through a straw ask 'em then if they wished that sun-uf-a-bitch-woulda killed them?

How many guys have you all seen in a wheelchair because of a bull or a horse? Um, none. I mean, I saw Christopher Reeve on TV, but that's it. When you have to drink your Bud-Light through a straw ask 'em then if they wished that sun-uf-a-bitch-woulda killed them? First, who drinks Bud Light? That's just nasty. And through a straw, no less? Please. Whatever point you're trying to make here, well, you aren't making it.

"First, who drinks Bud Light? That's just nasty. And through a straw, no less? Please. Whatever point you're trying to make here, well, you aren't making it." The point I was trying to make was the fact I know of a few cowboys who "roll" into the place I tend bar after being made quadraplegics(sic?) by bull riding or bareback bronc busting. Just so happens almost every cowboy or redneck I deal with drinks the stuff(Bud light I mean) dont ask me why its the number one selling beer in the world, I certainly dont drink it. Wouldnt it suck if the only way you could drink a beer was to have a cup holder strapped to your chest and a straw for your bottle?

Not to be obtuse, but I think climbing a mountain (or any other large outcropping of the earth's surface, for that matter) is worlds apart from strapping yourself on the back of a (largely) wild animal, simply hoping to hold on for a predetermined amount of time while said animal does everything in its considerable power to dismount you. Climbing something seems like a reasonable enough activitiy to me...strapping myself to a pissed off, 3,000 pound beast that wants to stomp the holy living shit out of me doesn't. I have more sympathy for a broken climber than I do a broken cowboy. Wouldnt it suck if the only way you could drink a beer was to have a cup holder strapped to your chest and a straw for your bottle? Cry me a river...get 'em one of those hardhats with the beer holders and the plastic tubing.